EU membership: a challenge for the serious left

It is being
reported that some Scots intend voting Yes in the British referendum dealing
with Britain’s membership of the European Union. Apparently their decision is
based on the rather shaky principle that if a significant number of English
people wish to leave, they will vote to remain.

Something similar may
happen in the North of Ireland as a result of boorish statements from senior
members of the DUP, who prefer to criticise a hapless Taoiseach than to wrestle
with austerity-inflicting Tories.

While it is possible
to understand the resulting resentment, it would be short-sighted not to
deliver a better-judged verdict on the real nature and purpose of the European
Union during David Cameron’s “in-out” referendum. It would also be an
unforgivable blunder to allow the far right to dominate an argument that
socialists cannot ignore.

Moreover, the EU is
in the throes of a series of crises that may well determine much of Europe for
decades to come.

The European Union,
from its foundation, has been a structure designed to facilitate capitalism and
to promote imperialist objectives. When originally set up in the 1950s as the
Common Market it had as its primary purpose the creation of economic
co-operation between western European states hostile to the Soviet Union. In
spite of adopting a social-democratic programme in its early phase, it had a
clear but unspoken objective of curtailing socialism.

Many on the left
recognised the institution for what it was and drew attention (with
disappointingly little impact) to the threat posed by the presence of NATO
coupled to a political bloc fundamentally committed to maintaining free-market
economies.

Two main factors
accounted for the left’s lack of influence. Fearing the influence of the USSR,
coupled with the impact of post-war western European communist parties, the
ruling elite made strategic concessions to the working class. This, together
with a raised standard of living achieved by the super-exploitation of the
Third World, meant that for many years Europe’s rulers were able to contain
discontent.

For reasons well
known to readers of Socialist Voice, the EU’s ruling elite has retreated over
the past four decades from the post-war social-democratic arrangement. More
recently, attacks on workers’ living standards have intensified under a
neo-liberal agenda. As circumstances have changed, the widespread tolerance, if
not quite approval, that once existed for the EU among Europe’s working class
has come under significant challenge.

The reasons for
growing disenchantment are not hard to find. Capitalist free markets bring with
them the inevitability of crises, such as that triggered by the collapse of
Lehman Brothers in 2008. By enforcing the fiscal and monetary straitjacket
resulting in particular from the treaties of Maastricht and Lisbon, the EU
orchestrated an era of austerity as a response to the financial crash and
subsequent recession.

The result for
working-class communities in many parts of Europe has ranged from painful to
calamitous. Unemployment rose steeply in Ireland, Spain, Portugal, Cyprus, and
Greece, and the hard-won social welfare safety net was cut to the bone. Most
hurtful is the growing realisation that this situation is not a temporary
aberration but is the new standard.

Not surprisingly, the
enforcement of neo-liberal policies has caused resentment, and new, though
often disjointed, protest movements have emerged in many countries, including
Ireland. Nor is the discontent confined to the so-called peripheral countries.
A radical movement opposed to the Transatlantic Trade and Investment
Partnership¹ has grown in strength in Germany over the past few years and
recently staged one of the largest demonstrations ever seen in that country.

Against this
background of discontent with the economic management of the EU, conservatives
(and not just the far right) throughout the continent are stirring up hysteria
against the waves of refugees fleeing war in the Middle East.

So concerned are some
establishment-leaning commentators that they are going so far as to suggest
that these difficulties may lead to the break-up of the European Union. Prof.
Mark Mazower, writing in the Financial Times, said: “The union faces a deep
crisis of institutional legitimacy.”² He listed the main areas of contention as
high rates of youth unemployment, secular stagnation, and disagreement over
refugees, leading possibly to a collapse of the Schengen agreement. The
professor didn’t include a British exit from the EU, but he might well have.

In spite of the
problems confronting EU heads of government and their bureaucrats, there is
little doubt that the current European ruling class will strive to maintain an
entity that has served it well for so long. Moreover, present indications are
that they will endeavour to do so by moving further to the right. Using
increasingly authoritarian methods, whether financial, fiscal, or armed force,
they will hope to simultaneously outmanoeuvre both the populist right and
meandering social democrats. There are already clear signs that leading EU
governments are employing increasingly reactionary and anti-democratic
practices.

In the light of this
it has to be stated that the EU is not going through a temporary phase of
turbulence that can and will be corrected if and when, that “better and
improved policies are adopted if the right people are put in place.” The EU is
not like a dysfunctional family that can be improved by the application of
therapy and a measure of good advice. The EU is doing what it was designed to
do, and will continue doing so unless and until it is replaced by a different
construction.

The forthcoming
referendum promised by David Cameron provides the serious left with a challenge
that cannot be avoided. With heightened interest in the debate, it is important
to avail of an opportunity to make people throughout Ireland aware of the
nature and purpose of the EU and simultaneously to offer a realistic socialist
alternative. It is crucial, therefore, that the debate doesn’t get sidetracked
into secondary issues or become distorted by right-wing, xenophobic ranting
(nor that anyone should support the EU because that might annoy the DUP).

A century after the
1916 Rising it would be timely and important to remind Irish people that
control by the EU of monetary and fiscal policy, and a growing military
commitment, are incompatible with the existence of a “sovereign, independent
state” capable of defending the well-being of its citizens.

It might also be
timely to rework an old adage from that revolutionary era and point out that the
EU’s difficulties could and should become an opportunity for the working class
in Ireland and abroad. As a first step we need to engage energetically in the
debate, providing a left critique of the EU that emphasises its core function
and worrying future developments. As always, any critique also requires the
outline of the realistic alternative offered by socialism.